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I spent 4 years working on luxury superyachts (or megayachts or gigayachts) and every time someone I know is thinking about it I end up having the same conversation with them. I’ve decided to stop doing that and put everything that I’d normally say into this post. This is everything you need to know about working on superyachts, all in one place.

To blog, or not to blog… thait is the question. I get asked it quite often and the answer is a general ‘yes’ – but more importantly you need to work out what type of blog to have first. This comes from the answer to the question: “Why?”

I have recently read a couple of articles about blogging (there are tons out there) but I perticularly like these 2. First is Mark Sunster’s comprehensive post with all the details on how, why and on what. Then there is also the balanced view from local entrepreneur Sheraan on the softer side of why he blogs and what you should think about before you start.

I think that on of the most important questions is “Why do you want a blog?” As far as I see it there are 3 different ontologies:Continue reading →

How lucky are you? I’m not a big fan of starsigns and superstitions, but some people just seem more lucky than others. Isn’t strange how some people always seem to land on their feet in any situation and that everything always works out for them? With some other people, it’s the opposite. So, what is it that makes some poeple really lucky?

As I found out in The Luck Factor by Richard Wiseman, there’s actually a little more to it. Through over 10 years of experiments researching luck he reckons that it depends more on what type of person you are than what you star sign is. The old saying, “Unlucky at cards – lucky at love” seems to be slightly off the mark because generally people that are lucky are lucky in many aspects of their life. So what makes for a lucky person?

I was at a party the other day chatting to a second year media student who wanted to major in digital marketing. She seemed really passionate about social media and it’s potential to be a major communication channel… blah blah blah. Wanting to shift from the textbook Social Media pitch I popped the question: “So, what’s your blog called?” After an initial confused blank look she went on to explain that she can’t start one because she does’t have her degree yet and that she didn’t know enough yet. I didn’t understand. I still don’t.

I know I’m in a ‘unique’ position to be able to do a Real World Degree, but I still cannot understand why more people are not actively pursuing their passions in their spare time. Take the above example where this girl could have had 3 years of creating engaging, social media content behind her as well as her degree in Digital Marketing. Imagine how much more impressive her CV could be by merely practicing in her spare time what she is learning at varsity. Who knows, maybe she could have been working for herself by the time she has her degree.

This is a simple case where the barrier of entry is pretty low. But what if you look at a more intense field, say engineering? Some names that come to mind are those of Gates, Ellison, Brin and others who gave themselves a head-start by working on the side while at school or university. Even as a Civil Engineer Project Manager you would be far better off if you had actually spent a holiday or 2 working on a construction site. The same applies for a vet, teacher or a number of other fields.

I think the biggest mistake is that most people are trying to do it with a sense of entitlement. As with my Inbound Business Model I believe that the value of experience is heavily underrated by the young. Yet when you are looking to apply for your first job the most common reason for being turned down is lack of experience. Why not go out and get that experience? I have yet to come across a startup or an SME who would not be willing to take on someone willing to learn. Especially if they are not asking for money. If you approach it with the sole aim of trying to gain experience I think you will be surprised by what you get in return. I certainly have been.

It is the disparity between education and reality that puzzles me. It may be down to the fact that we are a very consumer driven society and that universities are so dependant on maintaining the importance of degrees that they undermine the most valuable asset in the workplace: experience. But for the life of me I cannot understand why more people are not investing time and experience to help them get the edge in the future.

What do Bill Gates, Sergey Brin, Richard Brandson and Steve Jobs have in common? Yes, they are all very rich and successful – they also all dropped out of school or college. But what is the reason for their success? Is it because they are drop-outs and being over educated is a restriction to success? As there are many college dropouts not nearly as successful, I think not.

Not having a formal qualification does put pressure on you to be more innovative, but I think that important thing that most people miss is that with all these successful guys that dropped out were moving onto something else. It was a side project, a dream, a hobby that they managed to make a business out of. Some other project in their life just became more important thatn getting a degree at that point.

Most successful people that I deal with are the types of people who have laods of projects on the go, or at least did before they dropped everthing else to focus on one specific project. When they werre at university they were involved in other societies, clubs, hobbies or businesses. Like Steve Woznaic who designed and built the entire Apple I and Apple II computers in one year… all while working a 9 to 5 job at HP. It was Sergy Brin’s hobby to “donload the whole internet” that lead to the PageRank script that was the foundation for Google’s search.

The fact that many wealthy people don’t have degrees has very little to do with the value of a degree or not. I believe it has way more to do with what they do in their spare time. Hobbies and side projects are far less constrained by the rules of society and are often far more out-of-the-box than the convential 9 to 5 job that you rely on. After all, the more side projects that you run the higher the chance that one of them might just work out.

So next time you meet someone interesting, instead of asking what they do for a living, ask them what they do in their spare time.

It is always a concern for me about who can view the info on my Facebook Page. It led me to be pretty stingy with who I added as a friend as I refused to make my personal Facebook page completely sterile. I used to keep Facebook purely for friends and Linkedin purely for business but that line is often blurred. I have only recently started using the list feature on Facebook, and realise what I have I been missing out on! I have now managed via lists to have different people see different areas of my page. Each person is put on a list and sees only the area of my page that is relevant to the list they are on – and no more. i.e. business associates can see lots of contact information but no pictures and posts; Close friends can see everything and distant friends can only see limited pictures and posts with very little contact details. It takes a little while to set up, but is well worth it. Here is my easy step-by-step* guide…

*I have a brief 3 step summary for advanced users at the bottom…

Firstly you will need to create the lists. To do this, look on the top right and go to

Account -> Edit Friends

This will bring up your list of friends with a button Create list button at the top.Continue reading →

I read a great book a little while ago, called Inbound Marketing, and it got me thinking. Where else is it relevant? How can you apply this to business? But first, the background theory…

Tradition marketing follows an Outbound marketing model where the company sends out the information of their product/service to potential customers in the hopes of making the sale. With the sale, the customer is given value and through use they create a relationship with your company. Hopefully this will lead them to come back. (All TV and radio ads, Flyers, newspaper ads etc)